I still can’t wrap my head around the number of really silly, very inexpensive, common books that I see people grading/offering for sale. Perhaps these ongoing increases will chip away at that a bit.
I do like to get many of my books graded, but it really makes me think about the ones I do.
The hardest thing for me is getting the really good, older, key books graded at this point. Books over $1000 are a heck of an upfront cost anymore. I can’t really justify the cost at this point.
I think these increasing prices will continue to create an emphasis back to buying raw books.
To me, the big change here is the removal of the pre-screen minimum of 25. I’d bet many more people start using that and we start seeing far fewer moderns below 9.8. $9 is steep for that, but I’d rather pay that $9 than end up with a 9.6 on a newer book.
I’m still bitter about my Death of Dr. Strange Bloodstone (First Lyra) 1 1:10. It’s the most damn flawless book I’ve submitted, and it got a 9.6. If she ever becomes a character people care about, I’d resubmit with the 9.8 min prescreen.
If this does happen, a good practice will be to check the census for titles with competitive registries and cross check with listings available. This could drive up the price on some books a lot. Wolverine 41 (2nd print) in 9.8 was a very in demand book. It still commands a decent price, but not what it did before people wised up.
It could create quite the cottage industry if the $9 reject fee scare a lot of people away.
Smart move by CGC to remove the 25 book minimum for prescreen service. They’ve likely been getting wayyyyy less 25 book prescreen submissions full of nonsense books since they’re no longer sellable for a profit. This means sellers are more selective about which books to submit. Removing the 25 book minimum will get those sellers to submit more frequently.
I’d suspect this weird mixing of GI Joe and Avengers wasn’t Chaykin’s fault. If you see him in person, he’ll sketch but you have to bring the paper or book - he’s not the type to have blanks sitting around. This was probably sent in for his CGC signing or possibly the fault of a facilitator.
